The Internet presents security challenges to corporations and others who have computers that store confidential information and that have connections to the Internet. Traditionally, documents containing confidential information are marked with a legend or other visual indicia with words such a “CONFIDENTIAL”, “PROPRIETARY”, etc. The presence of these marks alert anyone handling such documents that they should only be transferred outside of company under special precautions. It is relatively difficult and unusual for someone to manually send such a document to an unauthorized receiver inadvertently. However, the use of Internet communication changes the situation.
The Internet and electronic mail speeds the communications process; however, the Internet and electronic mail also make it much easier to inadvertently or accidentally send a confidential document to an unauthorized receiver. A single accidental or inadvertent keystroke can have wide ranging unintended consequences. The Internet and other electronic communication systems make it easy to communicate; however, these systems and networks also make it easy to mistakenly or inadvertently send a document to the wrong party.